Logical Fallacies
by softsyllables
Summary: "What if underneath the calm surface a secret irrational storm was brewing underneath? What if logic just prolongs a problem? Sometimes skin and tissue have stories to tell as well. Contains Self-Injury. Full Summary Inside.
1. Introduction

Logical Fallacies

A Bones Fanfiction.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Bones. These characters belong to FOX Television, Kathy Reichs, and Hart Hanson.

Warning: This fanfiction contains mature content in the form of self-injury/self-harm/cutting. If you are trigged by this/sensitive to this subject please think before reading or do not read if you know that you will be triggered. If you are having thoughts of self-injury, please tell someone. If you want you can message me and I'll be happy to help you in any way I can.

The title comes from the logical way Bones handles everything in her life and from how logic can often be misleading - as it was the Gormogon's logic that led Zack astray.


	2. Chapter 1

Dr. Temperance is the most rational person anyone could ever meet. It's her total empiricism and complete rationality that drives her to preform better, to continue writing, and to solve every puzzle that comes into her lab at the Jeffersonian Institute. Her logical ability was the perfect compliment to her partner, FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth's natural talent - his gut intuition. But, what if underneath the calm surface a secret irrational storm was brewing underneath? What if logic just prolongs a problem? Sometimes logic is not always perfect. Sometimes skin and tissue have stories to tell as well.

"A person's bones can tell quite a remarkable story of their life. From just a few bones I can give you a general synopsis of who they were, what they did, where they lived, and so much more. Where flesh and tissue falls away, bone leaves a lasting impression." Dr. Temperance Brennan answered the question of an undergraduate in special topics lecture on her craft at American University in Washington D.C. She was the last speaker as part of a weeklong series in forensics being given at the school. The students were thrilled to hear her speak and were looking forward to her lecture the most of the other four professionals.

Once the lecture was over and Tempe had finished her conversations with the university professors she gathered her things and started to head out to her car, but a sign on the message wall in the common building stopped her in dead in her tracks. It was a sign for the school's counseling center, which featured a black and white photo of a girls face on one sheet and a boys face on the other with the words of various disorders and symptoms floating around the two heads. The bottom said, "need to talk, dial extension x4326 today. American University Counseling Center." Normally this kind of thing wouldn't faze the famous anthropologist, in fact she probably wouldn't even notice it any other day. Whatever it was, something about it stuck in the doctor's mind.

Not wanting to draw attention to herself she forced herself to look forward and continued to her car and from the school went back to her apartment. Their wasn't an active case waiting for her at the lab and everyone had the day off anyway. Angela and Hodgins were due to have their first child any day now and were spending every free moment decorating and baby proofing the house. Cam was spending time with a new love interest - an high profile lawyer with firms in New York and D.C., and Booth was spending the weekend with Parker. He was spending part of his bonus to take his son to Disneyworld, but Tempe suspected that Booth wanted to go himself and would enjoy the trip just as much as Parker, if not more. Brennan couldn't help but chuckle at Booth's strong inner child, but part of her was deeply envious of his carefree nature.

Alone for the weekend Tempe was looking forward to doing some writing - her publisher wants a new manuscript by the end of the summer - and finally getting to clean and rearrange her apartment. Her busy schedule and case load had left her latest draft to sit idly by, her characters frozen at chapter one, and her apartment was starting to look less and less like a home and more like a hotel room. However, the first thing she did upon arriving home was to pour a glass of wine and draw a warm bath. She did know how to relax, even if it seemed like she was always going going going until she crashed, which didn't happen often anyway.

Soon the bathroom was filled with a pleasant lavender aroma and Tempe was left to enjoy the warm water and let the heat soothe her. Setting the wine glass down on the counter Temperance let herself slip into the warm water. The last case had been tough - the murder of a small child by his own parents. The death of a child was always tough, but it was worse when the murderer was someone intimate in the child's life. As she'd told her former assistant Zack, it was always harder with children.

"Stop it Brennan!" She chided herself. "Enjoy your evening. You should be relaxing. You and Booth caught the killers. The evidence is solid and Caroline got them to plead guilty. Relax!"

But she couldn't stop thinking about the little three-year-old who would never get his chance to grow up. She couldn't stop thinking about her lost assistant Zack. She couldn't stop thinking about the poster that jarred her so badly at the university. She couldn't stop thinking.

Temperance let the water drain from the tub, but she didn't get up. Instead she lay there, motionless, staring off into space. She reached over, seemingly without looking, and pulled a small wooden box from behind the toilet. Inside was a small object she pulled out less often now, but still had a use for from time to time. The razor blade was unused this far - little tips Temperance had learned from years of practicing this ritural. Pressing the razor blade to her arm, just below her elbow Tempe slowly pressed down and began to slide the blade across her forearm.

A line of blood followed where the blade had just touched and bloomed into a puffy line of red. Tempe began to see stars and her mind stopped going over details. Her mind slowed to a snails pace until it just... stopped and she started breathing again. After three new lines had their own trail of blood right below the first of this night's line Temperance cleaned her razor and slipped it back into it's hiding place. The stars in her eyes danced across her line of vision and it wasn't until they disappeared that she turned the faucet back on and began the process of cleaning up.


	3. Chapter 2

The light poured into her room and when Temperance rolled over she was hit by a bright ray of sunlight. Sitting up her hand when immediately to her sore right arm, to the four red lines on her forearm. Her fingers traced the new marks and then wandered up and down her arms across the patterned scars that told a story her bones never could. "Maybe that's why I never studied tissue," She thought, "Maybe it's only because bones can never tell this story."

Tempe tried to push that notion out of her head because it would only lead her back to her blade. Instead she thought about the first time she discovered this secret habit. It was her freshman year of high school...

_Fourteen-year-old Temperance Brennan sat in her honors world history class waiting for the teacher to begin. Her classmates were discussing their weekend activities, attempting to get back some sleep they couldn't get when their mothers yelled at them not to miss the bus, or otherwise entertaining themselves with comic books or spitballs. _

_The teacher, Mr. Brant, entered the room wordlessly and set his briefcase down on top of the desk. He pulled out the papers he needed for the class as the students began to settle down. Mr. Brant was as cool as a teacher could be, but at the same time he was also strict in his expectations of an honors class. _

_"I trust everyone has their homework." Mr. Brant asked the class with a chuckle after he finished roll. _

_The class just nodded and Mr. Brant smiled as he began walking up and down the rows to collect the assignment. When he got to Temperance's desk and noticed she didn't have a paper to hand in he paused. "Do you have your homework Temperance?" _

_Tempe was silent. She didn't have her homework. Her parents had been fighting the previous night and in order to keep her out of it, her older brother Russ had taken her to spend the night with a friend of his. In his haste to get her out of the house she had forgotten her schoolbag. _

_"Tempe always has her homework!" A boy from the back row called out._

_"Yeah!" His sidekick echoed, which got the whole class going. _

_Tempe sunk down into her seat. Mr. Brant yelled at the two boys who started it, but their comment was still in the air. Another student continued by yelling, "Looks like little-miss-perfect isn't that perfect! Finally, there's hope for the rest of us!"_

_Temperance's face burned and she grabbed her bag and ran out of the classroom, leaving Mr. Brant staring at her shadow. He paused a moment, watching the door slam before turning back to chastise his students and punish them with a pop quiz. Meanwhile Tempe ran into the bathroom and into the third stall from the door. She barely could get the door locked before she started crying. Pulling her feet up onto the toilet seat she made herself smaller so no one could see who it was in the stall. She sobbed and sobbed until their was nothing left and then she just held her knees to her chest and tried to will herself to move. _

_When she heard the bell to end first period Temperance let her legs down onto the floor. Slowly she wiped her eyes and steadied herself as she stood up and reached for the lock. "Breathe. Just Breathe." She whispered to herself. _

_The bell rang for the start of second period and it was all she could do to keep herself from sitting back down and crying because now she could add tardiness to her list of embarrassments. But she pressed open the door and was about to walk to her next class - English - when someone caught her eye. _

_"You're bleeding." Temperance looked wide-eyed at the girl, probably an upperclassman since she had never seen the girl in any of her classes. _

_The girl turned around quickly with a horrified look on her face. "Please," She begged, "Please don't tell anyone."_

_"Why would I tell?" Tempe took a step closer, genuinely curious about this girl. "I just want to know why you did it."_

_"You're a freshman, right?" The girl tried to change the subject._

_"Yes, I am. My name's Temperance."_

_"Whoa, nice name. That's different. I like it. My name's Rebekah." The other girl smiled and looked at Temperance. "You don't want to get started with this Temperance. It's not a forgiving habit and it's not easy to stop." _

_Temperance took in all the new information. "But why? Why do you do it?"_

_Rebekah just looked at the younger girl. She sighed and pulled her sleeve back down. "It helps. This may sound weird but... It's helps. It's like, pain I can control. Emotions and feelings, they're tricky and I can't control the bullies or my parents, friends or even my boyfriend. But this, this is mine. It's easier to deal with physical pain. It's visible, it mean the pain is here, in a particular spot that I can point to. It's real and it's easily remedied, I can put a bandage on it, or some cream and I know it's going to heal. It's mine and I can fix it. With all the stuff in my head, that... that I can't fix or change or control. This, this... mutes that pain and it's mine. But you don't want to get caught up in it... you'll never stop." With that last sentence Rebekah touch Temperance's chin and looked into her eyes and when she let go she hugged her and then walked out of the restroom, leaving Temperance standing there thinking about all she had just learned. _

_Later that night Temperance locked her door and took out the razor she had taken from her dad's work bench. Holding it between her thumb and forefinger she made the first of many lines on her arm._

That had been a little more than twenty years ago and the events of those years were all written across her forearms, with footnotes delicately scrawled over her thighs.


	4. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Wow, I wasn't expecting anyone to read this at all. Thank you for your kind reviews. That just made my morning to logon and see that. I'm going to try to update this once a day or maybe one every other day. I'm just finishing up finals for my third year of university and then I'll be able to write more. :D

Also, I wanted to explain what made me write this fanfiction. I've seen a lot of fanfiction stories, from almost every show/book I've ever read fanfiction for that feature dark themes like self-injury, eating disorders, teen pregnancy, abuse, what have you - even when these themes aren't common to the show at all. But that aside, I've only ever read a small number of stories where these themes were made into well-written (few to no grammatical errors, actual paragraphs and real dialogue, etc.) and didn't go OOC/AU with the characters. So, I wanted to write a story exploring these dark themes (because they are relevant to my life) that didn't get off track in the characterization and is well written. Thank you for reading!

* * *

><p>Still tracing the new marks on her arm Temperance lingered in her bedroom a little longer, completing the full ritual she had become used to. It wasn't until she caught site of the time that she was snapped from her trance. The bright, blaring neon green lights shouted out the time, but all Tempe heard was that if she didn't hurry she'd never get started on any of the things that needed to get done today.<p>

Now fully aware of herself and her surroundings Tempe walked across her room and slipped into the shower, ignoring the toilet and what laid behind it. She was almost finished with her breakfast when her phone lit up and she heard the one ringtone that couldn't be anyone else.

"Brennan." She answered, waiting for the other end to speak.

"Bones, you know it's me. When are you going to answer with a hello, or a hey you?" Special Agent Seeley Booth joked affectionately with his partner.

"Because, Booth, it's not a polite or proper way to answer the telephone. Now, what's up?" She laughed under her breath at her colloquial turn of phrase after Booth had just insulted her word choice.

"A couple of college students found a body. I'll be at your place in 10 to drive you up to the scene."

"Okay Booth. See you soon." Brennan wasn't much for long elaborate conversations over the phone. Plus, she still had to clean up her apartment because she'd never gotten to it last night.

Booth pulled up to his partner's apartment and parked in two spaces right in front. He was smart and left his FBI credentials on the dash, in full view in case any meter maids stopped and sought to give him a ticket. Booth clicked the remote key and the SUV beeped, signally that it was successfully locked, as he jogged up to Bones apartment.

The crime scene was about an hour away on the boarder of West Virginia and Booth knew the local police would still be buzzing around trying to catch some sort of job while the FBI grunts and the Jeffersonian squints sifted through evidence. While Booth knew that Bones liked to get to the crime scene as earlier as possible so she could take control of what went where, he was really into all the territorial squabbling between agencies and the larger numbers of people that would be going about the area. Secretly Booth was hoping his partner would be easily swayed into going to this amazing restaurant just before the West Virginia boarder.

"Bones!" Booth knocked at the apartment door. "Bones, I'm here!"

"Coming Booth! Calm down, I'm right here." Brennan called out as she walked towards the door Booth was yelling through.

The two people stared at each other awkwardly for the first few seconds, trying to determine what sort of mood the other would be in for the day, thus knowing where to tread lightly. Recently their relationship had been strained by the job, the drama floating around their circle of friends, Booth's previous relationship, and Brennan's own issues.

"Hey, can I use your bathroom before we head out?" Booth smiled and walked inside his partner's apartment. As much as he sometimes felt a little jealous of her apartment, which was twice as large and a lot nicer than his own, Booth tried to spend as much time in it as possible.

"Sure, I guess." Tempe looked at her watch. "But hurry, I want to get to the crime scene before someone screws up the evidence."

Booth just rolled his eyes and walked into the bathroom. He forgot to lock the bathroom door, but in reality Temperance would never intrude on his privacy. As he was about to wash his hands the little bar of soap fell off the counter and landed just behind the toilet. Reaching down to pick it up Booth's hand fell on something else that must have fallen into the corner. He pulled both the soap and this other thing up, thinking it would be a good deed helping Bones a little.

As he placed the soap and the little box down on the corner his curiosity got the best of him and he started to wonder what was in the box and why it was so hidden. It wasn't like Bones to keep secrets, especially from him. The little box was rectangular and upon closer inspection it looked like an old metal tea container.

When Booth lifted the lid off of the box he nearly dropped it in sheer shock at what was inside. There was a razor blade placed a top a bloodstained cloth and then some Band-Aids and gauze neatly tucked into the side. He didn't immediately make the connection of what it was all for, but he did eventually realize what this all meant.

He didn't know what to do. Tempe was a cutter, but what should he do: confront her now or leave it alone and pretend he never found her kit? Should he tell someone? Booth turned on the faucet, giving him more time to think without Bones getting suspicious of what he was doing in here. So many emotions flooded his mind, that he just wanted to punch something - or cry, and he never ever cried.

"Booth, are you done in there? Geez, I'm going to need a whole can of Febreeze at this rate!" Bones joked and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" Booth composed himself as best as he could and left the razor blade on the counter.

"Alright Booth, I'm ready to go." Bones grabbed her bag off the sofa.

"Bones... I, I uh..." His voice trailed off.

"What's up Booth?" She wasn't used to him not being able to speak his mind, understanding and pronouncing large words, yes, but not being able to talk, that wasn't the Seeley Booth she knew.

"I don't know how to say it, Tempe..."

"So, just say it. Like taking off a Band-Aid, they say you should just rip it off, quickly."

Oh, how close her metaphor was to home. If this wasn't such an upsetting conversation Booth would have chuckled at the irony. Instead he took her by the arm and led his partner over to the couch.

"Bones, I found your razor blades." Booth couldn't look her in the eyes. She didn't say anything, she just sort of fell onto the couch. "Tempe... how long have you been doing this? Why, Temperance? Please, tell me why."

Temperance couldn't speak. Her head had gone numb and her eyes blurred over. Everything was blurry and even Booth's voice was fuzzy. She couldn't move. The two people just sat their on her couch, motionless, unable to speak, until Temperance just fell into Booth's chest, sobbing.


	5. Chapter 4

Temperance just fell into Booth's chest as the tears started to fall uncontrollably. She didn't know what she was doing, her mind had just... turned off. She was numb and all she could so was go limp in her partners arms and cry.

Booth didn't know what to do or say next. He had just brought an elephant into the room. He had just, without meaning to, brought the relationship between himself and Brennan to a whole new level. So used to combat and the life of a soldier, Booth was suddenly just overflowing with emotions, but without any outlet for them. He just watched Tempe's body heave with each sob, he watched her become so vulnerable right here, while clinging to his shirt - while clinging to him - for support. Booth just reached his arms around her, holding her and loving her with all his being.

As he was holding her and gently running her hair through his fingers Booth was trying to think of what was supposed to happen next. What should he say? What should he do? What would she say? As much as he wanted to help her, he was starting to worry if someone like Angela wasn't more able to help Temperance right now. Booth sighed and just held his partner, letting go of any stray thoughts and worries he just held her. The two people just stayed there on Tempe's couch, one holding the other, one being held and somehow it was enough, it was just right.

After some time had passed, unbeknownst to the two people sitting in an apartment building feeling more than anyone else could be at that moment, Booth started to think again, this time with more certainty of where he would go from here. He was just about to speak when Temperance sat up and wiped her eyes and started to compose herself. Almost as soon as she had stood up she had a confused look on her face. She saw the tear stains on Booth's shirt, but she didn't know why or how they got there. Tempe tossed the thought aside and looked directly at Booth, "Let's get going Booth, we're going to be late."

She started to stand up, but Booth tugged on her wrist and brought her back down onto the sofa. "Bones," He let her nickname be a source of comfort, "Tempe, we're not going anywhere."

"What... what are you talking about Booth?" She looked confused. "You called and said we had a case."

"Tempe - "

She cut him off. "Why do you keep saying my name like that? Booth, let's go." Part of her didn't have any idea why he was being so emotional, but another part didn't want to have this conversation, didn't want to go into this at this moment. She wasn't ready to handle what he had to say, so she blocked it out and tried to focus on work.

"Tempe, listen to me." Booth took her wrists in his hands and looked into her eyes. "Tempe, I'm worried about you. You scared me today when I saw what I did in your bathroom. Please, please talk to me. Please, even if you won't talk, please listen to me."

For once Temperance was silent. She looked down at her wrists in Booth's hands. Her... scarred wrists. He knew what he was holding. He knew what he was holding and he still touched her, he still wanted to be close to her and hold her.

"It makes me feel better." Was all she said.

"Oh Bones." He reached over to hug her. As they embraced Booth went to life her sleeves, but she recoiled. "It's okay, it's okay."

Temperance was still silent at this point, trying to make herself take in all that was happening. She drew back at Booth's touch, trying to bury herself in the corner of the sofa. She was ashamed and she didn't know why. It was perfectly rational what she was doing, so why... why was she so ashamed and insecure right now?

"Have you ever talked to anyone about this?" Booth let her hide in the corner of the sofa. He watched her as she tried to make herself disappear behind one of her decorative pillows. He knew this would take time. "Does anyone else know?"

She started following the stitching of the pillow with her finger, tracing the floral patterns and trying to calm herself down. She had gone over ever flower twice before she spoke. "No one noticed because it wasn't a common problem that people knew about."

She looked at Booth and continued. "Only one person ever found out. It... it was in college and usually I could say I was clumsy with the lab equipment, but one day another student realized where the - " She stopped, she couldn't say the word.

"It's okay." Booth said, giving her all the time in the world.

"She realized that I wasn't that clumsy. I had to do her lab reports for two weeks so she wouldn't tell anyone what I was doing. But other than that no one noticed - or they never said anything, until you that is."

"Have you - "

"Please don't tell anyone. Please don't tell Sweets." Tempe looked down at the pillow in her arms, unable to look at her partner. "Please."

"I won't tell." Right then and there Booth made the conscious decision not to tell anyone until she was ready to tell someone, unless if she did it again and got reckless.

At that point he saw the first part of a small smile creep across her face, but it was gone before he could say anything else. "Bones, have you ever." He paused. "Have you ever tried to stop?"

She paused, really thinking about it. She paused, trying to suppress her shame because it wasn't a shameful thing. It never was. "I guess not... no. It's not... It's not a bad thing, it's a normal response to pain."

Booth didn't understand so he just let her continue.

"It's like, I've found a way to take emotional pain, the complication of thoughts and feelings and things that just hurt and express them in a way I know how to solve. It's impossible to confront feelings and solve them at that level, so you have to change them into something you can directly fix, like multiplying fractions or balancing a chemical equation. My thoughts and emotions become physical. That I can handle, that I can fix. And, it's not unique to me. Bloodletting was a common practice for hundreds of years for all sorts of ailments, including melancholy. It's just... my way of dealing with everything."

"Tempe..." Booth didn't know what to say. He wanted to hug her, but she was still hiding herself and he didn't want to ruin this and not be able to help her. The silence enveloped the two people. It seemed like the silence would last forever because neither knew what to say or where to go from this point. They were both lost for words, one lost in trying to get back to the place she was in just a few hours earlier, the other at a loss for how to bring his partner through this without setting everything back.

It was Booth's cellphone that broke the silence. He was all set to ignore the thing, but the loud ringtone was just intrusive. Booth glanced at the caller I.D., it was Angela. He looked over at Tempe, she was still tracing the pattern of the pillow and looking away from him.

He would later realize that it was a rookie mistake, but he stood up and walked into the small atrium where she couldn't hear him and clicked answer. "Booth, Hodgin's covered in slime or else he would have called, but where are you and Brennan? I mean, if you two wanted to have a little early morning fun, at least call first." She laughed at her own lame joke.

"Ange, we're not coming to the scene. Tempe's sick and I'm taking care of her for the day, just making sure she's okay. Gonna make my famous grilled cheese and tomato soup. Perfect sick food." Booth tried to sound as normal as possible.

"Okay sweetie. Tell her I said to feel better. Maybe I'll stop by when we're done here."

"Alright." Booth said without thinking. "Let Cam and everyone know, okay? Thanks Ange."

Angela should have known something was wrong when Booth called her Tempe instead of Bones like he usually did, but she didn't think of it at the time and after getting back to Hodgins, who was not trying to chase her around with whatever slime was on his hands, she forgot about it.

After he hung up with Angela Booth felt relieved that she didn't question anything. He put his phone on silent and left it on her kitchen counter. He was in a hurry to get back to Bones.

"Tempe, I'm back." He called out as he walked into the living room. She wasn't sitting on the couch. "Temperance!"

He called out her name, but got no answer. Panic filled his entire being and he started to look for her.


End file.
